NEO-CLASSICAL THEORY

MATURITY – IMMATURITY THEORY

REPORTER: EDUARDO S. PORRAS, JR.

COURSE: INTRODUCTION TO ORGANIZATION AND HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT (SK-A)

PROFILE
CHRIS ARGYRIS
• Chris Argyris was an American business theorist, Professor Emeritus at Harvard
Business School, and held the position of "Thought Leader" at Monitor Group.
• Argyris is best known for his theory, single- and double-loop learning, the
immaturity/maturity continuum, organizational communication and the effects of each
of these on employees’ motivation, accountability and empowerment.
Maturity – immaturity theory
• According to this theory, a persons’ development is processed along a continuous break
of an immaturity situation to a maturity situation.
• A mature person is characterized for being active, independent, self-confident and self-
controlled.
• On the contrary, an immature person is passive, dependent, has lack of confidence and
feels need of control by others.
MANAGEMENT ATTITUDE
• According to Argyris, many organizations prevent their employees from reaching the
desired states of a mature, independent personality through their overreliance on rules,
procedures and rigid formal structures.
• Employees are suppressed by management principles that seek to keep them in a
dependent state.
HIGHER PRODUCTIVITY
• Agryis believed that managers who treat people positively, and are responsible adults,
will achieve the highest productivity.
• He thought that common problems of employee avoiding work, lack of interest,
alienation and low morale may be signs of mismatch between management practice
and mature adult personality.
• His solution to the problem is to expand job responsibilities; allow more task variety
and adjust supervisory styles to allow more participation and promote better human
relations.
Seven (7) changes in personality
 The maturity/immaturity continuum theory states that the successful employee
empowerment requires management to provide opportunities for personal growth in
the seven (7) areas:
Seven (7) areas of changes
IMMATURITY MATURITY
• Dependence  Activity
• Few behaviors  Relative Independence
• Erratic & shallow interests  Many behavioral options
• Short time perspective  Lasting & deeper interests
• Subordinate positions  Long time perspective
• Lack of Self-Awareness  Equal or Superior positions
 Self-Awareness & Self Control

Passivity to activity
 People or employees are transformed from a passive state to a state of activity, and
becoming more active.
DEPENDENCE to RELATIVE independence
 People seek interdependence with others and grow to an independent state.
FEW BEHAVIORS TO MANY BEHAVIORS
 Individuals in only few ways as infants, but as adults they are capable of behaving in
many ways.
SHALLOW INTERESTS TO DEEP INTERESTS
 Age is not the only indicator of this aspect of maturity, as there are many adults who
have what could be seen have ‘immature’ interests.
Short-term perspective-long-term perspective
 People move from a concern only for the here and now (short time) to a concern for the
past, present and future (long time).
SUBORDINATION TO EQUALITY OR SUPERIORITY
 People move from a subordinate position to an equal or superordinate position.
NON-SELF-AWARENESS TO SELF-AWARENESS/
SELF-CONTROL
 Individual lack of awareness of a “self”, but as adults not only they are aware of, but
they are able to control “self”.
Purpose
 In nutshell, the main aim of the theory according to Chris Argyris is that it should
encourage the management within companies to empower their employees by
providing opportunities for personal growth in the same seven (7) areas.
Criticism
1. The model being only construct and cannot predict specific behavior.
2. A big limitation of this theory is that it relies on everyone's personality.
3. The seven dimensions are based upon latent characteristics of personality, which maybe
quite different from the observable behavior.

PREPARED BY:

EDUARDO S. PORRAS, JR
Reporter